Saving log - $1 tip box
Spendng log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

Nothing financial happened. The only thing interesting during the whole day happened in the morning when I walked through the Greenwood park gates for the bus and saw a raccoon ambling by in the road, unconcerned.

It wasn't a monstrously big one, but grown enough - more like an old teenager, young adult one. But raccoons out in daylight brazen like that meant it could be rabid. I stood still and waited for it to pass by then hop into a culvert on that corner.

Reminded me of other raccoon stories. The family of raccoons we apparently fed by setting a garbage bag outside (this before recycling when the Seattle garbagemen would actually trot into your yard and pick up your trash); the three foot high raccoon picking through the dumpster behind Dick's Drive In on 45th...

And the oldest story of all, when the other three foot high raccoon was trapped in dad's concrete silo, snacking on silage (cow kimchi - chopped, fermented corn stalks, tassels, and leaves). And raccoons are belligerent drunks, too. Whatever you do, don't shoot at a raccoon inside a concrete silo and MISS. Then you have to duck back out and wait for the bullet to stop ricocheting.

Wednesday
Saving log - $30 monthly interest in small accounts
Spending log - $3 bagel, coffee + $14 drugstore + $11 groceries

Stayed at home to greet the plumber. Plumbing got fixed at about 3pm, but I just was not feeling it to go into work for an hour. So I bought some groceries - we had no fresh vegetables in the house, so I picked up the cheap three: carrots, celery, onions.

While I was waiting for the plumber to come, I got a number of financial and gym tasks done: I set up my 2008 Roth ($5K is the maximum this year), I checked out my online Ameriprise account (grandma's trust is in Ameriprise, they've made an account in my name to move it from her to me), transferred $5K into the farmette account, and I put gym routines as little date journals into my PDA. Throughout the year, my trainer wrote out the exercises of the routines that we did on a small pad of paper. This pad of paper is nearly full. When we transfer to a new pad of paper I know the old one will disappear.

Yesterday, sister was online so we did some IMing. She sent the Excel spreadsheet that I made for her in October. I should have remembered to get it while I there, but I didn't so I taught sister how to send attachments.

I suggested she go through her checkbook and bank statements coming from the joint account for the farmette and IM me the transactions so I can update. Turns out we were $350 in the black for 2007 after taxes, electrical upgrade, solar panels, propane, new front door, redoing the milkhouse and foundation. Whew!

But not so whew - at least for sister - is that she hadn't done any of her paperwork to get grandma's trust transferred to her. Still in a serious, serious snit with the cousin, thinking somehow that he's stolen something or is hiding something. Its so bizarre to me why she's stamping her feet. Frankly, she's hurting herself - I've looked at the trust that has been transferred over into my account. Its a little more than what the cousin estimated it would be.

As it is, I now have to at least ask a CPA for advice on my tax situation for 2007. My ship has come in, but my moorage for it is not nearly adequate.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + 12$ lunch $2 fruit + $21 "happy hour"

Deposited $49 from the tip box to my bank - a good haul. Unfortunately, I managed to spend nearly $40 in the blink of an eye. Two drinks and snacks during happy hour just kills frugality. Liquor really kills any ability to save money. I just have to be thankful I had $25 to spend and no thought of pulling out plastic to dig myself in deeper.

Since DH has access to his family's cabin in Montana and I have access to the farmette near EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) in Wisconsin, DH and I thought to arrange a trade - sister and her partner could come and visit Montana, and the BIL, a pilot, could use the farmette and visit EAA.

All parties contacted were very agreeable, but it was very interesting that DH's sister and my sister had very similar reactions - DH's sister was thrilled, but asked to remind everyone that the cabin's very primitive w/outhouse, no electricity, etc, while my sister mentioned the bathroom, the kitchen floor, no air conditioning and the fact that they might be sleeping in the same bed that dad died in, but heck...it's free.

Out of everyone, I'm the only person's who has visited both places, tee hee. They're both comparable - each is not for everyone, but for the adventurous, each would give you something to talk about for years.

Now to straighten out the last weird thing about the farmette (at least for now). Last Saturday, sister gave me a paper grocery bag of envelopes, proclaiming, "I am my father's daughter."

Yikes.

That night, I went through the bag, shucking envelopes like oysters. Many were closed, which was depressing. It turns out that about 40% of it was hers but had nothing to do with the farmette.

I sorted into four piles: statements from our farmette bank account, bills that are clearly farmette, incidental letters and info clearly farmette, sister's items.

I then made an excel workbook with three spreadsheets: costs, deposits, summary statement that linked the total costs and total deposits - the number is black if we are in the black, red if we have more bill than deposit. There were two transactions that I had to correlate with sister's checkbook.

This took me all of 45 minutes. We were in the black, the big assumption being that she put everything in the checkbook and the grocery bag.

"Could you at least get one of those file boxes with the handle? At least its swankier than the grocery bag." I chided.

I extracted a promise that sister would send me the spreadsheet, then tell me the totals of the bills so I update. It'll force her to open the mail. (Drat, I should have saved the spreadsheet on my flash drive.)

Man, that bugs me. Sister's not an accountant, doesn't 10-key, and doesn't do audits, but at least open the mail and tally your bills up with a calculator. I'm trying to figure out what sister's so afraid of. I'm worried that I contributed to it a bit by threatening to cut her off. But if you treat your bills like they are going down a rathole, then I have to assume that my money is going down the same rathole.

Money's complicated, but if you tackle it one thing at a time, its not bad. I was afraid, once, when I had more commitments than money. The first step is being able to face the bad news.

Friday
Saving log - 3$ tip box
Spending log - 1.84$ coffee, milk + 7$ curry

I put $3 in my tip box for a later deposit, and deposited the $95,000 check in the bank. The $3 transaction was more satisfying to me as the $95,000 one. The 3$ transaction was all due to me, the $95,000 was the result of a long road. The proceeds of dad's estate are still unreal to me, as is now my new net worth. What to do with all that money? It would seem that I have an amount to do something good with, but definitely not enough to do nothing with. My ship has come in, all right, but its green sails are still powered by the winds of doubt.

Sister and her partner seem to have a plan for some of sister's share - they are interested in fixing up the farmette and using it as a weekend getaway. I was surprised to find out that sister's partner was especially happy with that, telling me that she found that she can really relax at the farmette. Sister's partner especially surprised me in telling me that sister is the frugal one, the one who trying to curb things, saying "we can't afford that" to projects, and not do everything at once.

But as for me, I'm not so interested in starting a business, have no kids to put through college, no strong desire to pursue holidays, toys, or hobbies. Retirement awaits, sure, but should everything have a 25 year time horizon? And if you don't have a habit for spending, you'll probably save and save and save even when you get into your 60s, all to create even more money for non-existant heirs.

This is a little tour of the grounds, especially the pieces that now the Wisconsin Dept of Nat Resources (WIDNR) owns. Warning - lots of fields that all kinda look the same. You just can't make that composition interesting.

The zoning situation, in a sign.


This is due east. The clear area is now WIDNR to be restored to wetland. They've sprayed for weeds and have seeded.


This is southeast, taken from the road. The weeds are from the road. The soft gray area in the background is the WIDNR's previous purchase of our eastern neighbor's land 15 years ago. Its a sign of things to come.


From the south, through the weeds. The foreground weeds are all ours, BTW.


The property line between us and WIDNR cuts close to the solar panels. They have a bit of "our" pasture. We are on the left, WIDNR is on the right, and yes, it sure looks greener on that side.


Sister in our weeds.


View from the southwest.


On the west edge, we discovered that our property line is about 10 ft farther than our fence line. So we own that 10 ft of grass past the fence. Its what caused that slightly increased acreage that freaked us out at the final step.


A picture of the corporate farm that sister despises. They were kind of interested in the property, but we were less interested in selling to them than to the WIDNR.


Fun shot of one of the barn kittens. He looks so much like my dead Augie that I just about cried.

I know you are curious, so as threatened, pictures of the farmette. These are shots of the house and barn. Warning - long, long, long, with lots o' pictures.

House - facing west. This is the side facing the barn, which we will see later. The foundation got recently fixed.


House - facing east. This is the side facing the garden and the property now owned by the Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources. We'll see that later, too. We never ever used that porch.


This is the north side of the barn and the now fixed up milkhouse. The red barn door is now new, and there aren't many diamond windows around on barns these days. The house would be behind you and to your left.


Inside of the old shed on the east side of the barn - all you would do is take a few steps to the left of the previous picture. This old, 20 ft shed contained the old, copper-bottomed still my grandfather (father's side) used to make whiskey during Prohibition.


This is the south side of the barn. The barn is actually in the shape of an upside down U - The milk cows were generally led in the central courtyard before milking and went there during rainstorms. Nowadays, the solar panel stands proud on the left. Its generating power - kind of fun watching the inverter go in reverse, sending power back to the utility.


Close up of the three poles. We installed three poles in case sister and I wanted to install two more solar panels. Under the three poles lay a trenched copper cable which delivers the power to the farmette. In the background, the southwest corner of the house is peaking through the trees.


Close up shot of the back end of the solar panel.


Close up of the courtyard where the cows lay. The flooring - ahem, compost - is like scotch: very well aged.


This is the south west corner of the barn. That little blue-green thingee sticking out is the automatic manure spreader - how cow manure got out of the barn.


Grounds and fields next.

A quick entry. Here's the itinerary:

Friday - at work, stitching things up, and getting bereavement time.

Saturday - flying out using Midwest Air. All about the warm cookies, apparently, which I got two of, but the real treat was the ability to fly directly to Milwaukee. First night with sister and sister's partner. A highlight (NOT) - sister put all the farmette financial statements in a paper bag. Sigh.

Sunday - I'm put to work at the now farmette near Oshkosh, taking pictures, hearing plans, and later harvesting squash. It was in the high 70s and I got eaten by flies and mosquitoes on the last day of September. Yes, George, global warming does exist. A pizza dinner at West End Pizza in Oshkosh. Proust had his memories activated by a madeleine dipped in tea; I have mine with West End Pizza cut in squares and a couple of glasses from a pitcher of beer.

Monday - At the farmette again before grandma's funeral and wake to measure curtains. Grandma had an open casket for private viewing - sister, sister's partner, me, cousin, cousin's wife. She was buried in what she wanted - peacefully, in her pajamas and pink bathrobe. The funeral itself was closed casket, with a dinner for the funeral party at her and grandpa's favorite supper club. Had a brandy old fashioned with extra bitters in honor of my grandma.

Tuesday - Flying out again.

More tomorrow.

Not personally, but again for paying the bills and projects on the farmette. I've transferred $5950, which sounds like a weird number, but it really means that I've transferred a total of 20K to farmette projects. The solar panel, trenching (bury the copper), upgrading the electrical to the house and to the power grid - important especially if the panels provide a surplus of power to sell back to the electric company.

All in six months!

I would prefer to keep it to 20K/year level. I'm feeling stressed and fearful about it because I don't want to feel cheap, but I don't want to feel like the money is going down a rathole. I know all of this is important to keep the place up enough to be worth "buying me out", but I want to see plans, pictures, and experience more about what is going on, and I worry that sister's being taken a bit. Or is she?

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $5.35 lunch

Spent $20 at lawyer friend partner's birthday dinner. Had fun, but I did notice out of the 14 people there a couple of people cheaped out a bit. I'm glad that if nothing else, keeping an eye on the money most other times means that I can shrug my shoulders and tsk tsk to myself. Keeping an eye on the my money makes me detail oriented, which means I keep an eye on everyone else's money too.

I collected $46 in the tip box this month. Deposited it yesterday afternoon at the bank.

This afternoon sister called me a couple of times. She got the notarized forms I mailed her, and as she was getting hers notarized by her insurance agent, she noticed a slight discrepancy - 74 acres instead of 73. So did that mean they bought slightly more, or what?

I reminded her that the property line was 8 ft further than the fence post. She called her lawyer who is arranging the sale about it - before she mailed the forms. Turns out that we are still getting the 7 acres (like only 6 acres is not a farmette, hah hah); the 8 ft extra did push it a little over.. The exact acreage was something like 73.7879. They rounded up the acreage in the contract. So sister will deliver the notarized contracts to her lawyer.

This has got to be it??!!!

Apparently even with 4-5 inches of rain, the gang is working - the post that the solar panels are going to sit on has been driven in, and the electricians are working at upgrading. I don't even want to think about it with all that standing water. Oh, and the solar panels are in the sheds.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $11 Denny's + $40 groceries + $26 CDs (1 a 2 record set)

The probable pentultimate gasp of paperwork for the 74 acres (second property minus farmette and 7 acres) came today in the mail, along with a few useful letters. It came from sister's lawyer.

In front of a notary, I'm to sign the Construction and Tenants affidavit and the Warranty Deed. Apparently the Transfer Return form is just for my files - sister, since she's readily available, is to sign that one. I get to call the lawyer and confirm.

And then sister and I each pay off the property taxes for 2007, now that dad's estate is no more (out of probate). I'll check with sister to see if we can use the joint checking account to pay it off. After all, its what I envisioned this joint account would be for.

According to the DNR letter, when this batch of paperwork is done, the Wisconsin DNR will get the clear title and cut us a check.

A couple of photos for today. This afternoon, it appears that fall has come a little early to Seattle. We got a spot of rain...


And another fall sign, lots of birds congregating on a wire. I felt a tad like Tippi Hedron as I snapped it. 'IMDB' Tippi Hedron for you young whippersnappers.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $8 lunch + $12 canning supplies

I called sister and sister called me back. She got the $50 deposit yesterday, but she didn't get it on Saturday. It appears to take 3-4 business days to move money from WA to WI.

With the upgrades in the electrical system, digging a trench for the cable to the house (bury the copper deep enough), building and installing the solar panels, the repair of the milkhouse and the foundation, insurance, and a new furnace... right now I sent $14,000 to the WI account. It will take a bit more, so I warned sister to work with the projects she has going now and not go for any more until these are done.

I sent the 14K, but I found that my WA bank would only transfer $9999.99 at a time. I did two transfers. I warned sister that with bigger transfers the bank might be more careful and slow things down. I'll watch from my end.

Talked with the Duvall friends about this upcoming weekend. We'll sleep over there Friday night, plan what we will waterbath can - jam, jelly, pickle, etc, but also check the Duvall farm fair Saturday morning. I don't think we will be canning a lot, but we can do a little practice run. I bought lids, rings, and pectin. I even got a deal on the pectin!

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $8 lunch

Quiet day - meetings got canceled right and left, and because my trainer's in Florida on break I have gym later this week. Did I get a lot done? Nope, got some but mostly I was putzing around and the day dragged a bit. I love being not busy, but its really bad for me.

The banker from WI called me back. The way we are trying it is to set up the joint account as a Payee to my WA checking account. Manual transfers, of course. Wouldn't want to be transferring dollars monthly. So I set it up and transferred 50$ to WI, then alerted sister to see if it worked.

Looked at the receipt for the groceries that I bought last night. I got a .05 credit for using the cloth bag. I'll have to remember that. Not a lot, but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, as grandpa used to say.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $7 lunch

Last week sister sent a packet of stuff - the application for our joint bank account (in Wisconsin), the estimate for the solar panels and site evaluation, estimate for redoing parts of the foundation and the milkhouse, pictures of the damage. It arrived yesterday.

Faxed to the Wisconsin bank my information. I'll call to make sure everything's okay, then put in my half in a couple of days.

Also got a call at work from the Wisconsin DNR agent. Turns out that the last tiny hurdle to closing the sale on the second property was that a thin strip of our property next to the road was zoned R1 (residential) and it should be all zoned A (agricultural) for the sale to go through. Since sister and I now own the property, not the estate, we as heirs have to sign off on it. Nowadays we can do it by email.

Saving log - $9
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $13 lunch + $4.50 groceries

Sister called. There is a possibility that buyers/ renters might be interested in the farmette. They would be friends of the farmette's neighbor coming up from Arizona in late August. Word has it that they are woodworkers, with dogs and birds.

Sister's very nervous about that possibility that someone other than family would be living there, but she would be very interested in the woodworking part - floors especially. I think its a great idea on paper - we need someone to be a presence 24/7 - but if they want to buy instead of rent, that would be an interesting twist. Until they show, though, its all theoretical.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $20 chiropractor + $5 curry lunch

Sister called me at work. The final hurdle for the sale of the second piece of land was that the town council had to approve it. It went through without a hitch. Apparently they approved it in about 2 seconds, sister said.

I expect that the estate will be finalized rapidly now, within a couple of months.

Sister went with her insurance agent, and paid the insurance for the farmette. We are now joint owners of the farmette. We talked a bit about getting a joint account in both sister's and my names, just in case sister got struck by lightening or something, and then we talked about plans.

I had to catch her a bit. She's having the foundation on the house redone for $5000. The site assessment for the solar panels came in at about $400 (a copy is to be sent to me), and they are interested in selling sister two lines of solar panels, each for $30K! Apparently there is a rebate of $4K/line, but I still had to remind her that she has now mentally spent $60K!

I'm not saying bad, I said, I'm saying be aware and slow down. Two big projects - tops - per year, so you can keep an eye on the work. Part of the usefulness of the joint account is that it provides a natural budget line. Put a certain amount in yearly and don't add more upon the pain of death. And I was thinking somewhere around 25K for each of us this year!

I also told her that I thought that the slowing real estate market would work somewhat to our advantage - a contractor with no jobs will start to work lean and pay attention to us. We could get a better deal somehow. We would be small, but we could keep someone eating next year.

I feel like the bean counter/ emotional brake/ killjoy here. I want this to work out. I want my sister to be happy. I don't want to be taken for a ride. And if sister buys me out in 5 years I at least don't want to lose too much money.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $4.34 girly supplies + $15 lunch

Two coworkers going away parties - one a lunch, one an afternoon cake and ice cream party. I claimed that I couldn't have too much cake and ice cream because the trainer could smell it on my breath.

On the more interesting front, sister and I will be deeded the house, barn, sheds and 7 acres Saturday June 30. Sister thinks that half and half on the joint account is a fantastic idea. She's into thinking about the upgrades - solar panels and electrical, which is okay, but I'm more interested in covering the taxes, better security and insurance. Cover the bases and ease into ownership, nothing too crazy. My fear is that while sister is there weekends and dad's friends keep an eye...its just not enough. We improve the electrical, which means copper, great, but copper prices are now high; copper turns into a "magnet" (hah couldn't resist) for thieves. If you put good stuff in, you now have to live there. Its not like they will give you a break and try to rob you during daylight.

The Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources) is already doing stuff. (Of course its now their property!) Sister asked and they've told her, which she's getting a big kick out of. They've sprayed the old fields with roundup last week, and are re-seeding with prairie grass and flowers, will cut 2-3 times a year, and burn the fields once every 3-5 years, to simulate wildfires. They're going to assess how they will restore the wetlands this fall. They seem to be very communicative and open - a very welcome development.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $7 lunch

What's left on the inheritance is for the proceeds on the property that the Wisconsin DNR bought are to be divided up between sister and I. Then the house, barn, sheds, and the 7 acres left (aka the farmette) are to be deeded to the two of us equally. I emailed my sister a proposal that we form a joint savings account that each of us contributes equally to pay for insurance, taxes, maintenance and upgrades.

I figure that this account would give sister some flexibility to pay what needs to be paid, it earmarks money to the farmette, it would set up a natural limit on spending, and it wouldn't hurt to put it in a vehicle that will pay us in interest while we make thoughtful decisions.

Sister mentioned the possibility of "buying me out" of the farmette in about 5 years. I also think if each of us puts equal amounts into an account like this it would make the accounting at that time a lot easier. Nothing like avoiding a "you spent this, but I spent this" fight.

Wonder what she thinks about this?

Saving log - $7
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $5 lunch

Not lbs, K. As in $190,000. Got a voicemail from sister telling me she (we) got the WiDNR bid from the executors yesterday, so I know what to expect today. WiDNR is offering $190,000 for the 72 acres, leaving us the 7 acre farmette - house, barn, sheds to sell. We also got a bid to rent the property to Peanut, the farmer whom we fear is an ecological pig. We received a form where we were to decide separate yays/nays on each bid.

So I called sister a few minutes ago and we hammered out the decision.

Yay - $190,000 State of WiDNR bid.
Nay - Peanut.

In my mind it boiled down to one paragraph in the option s.23.09(2)(d) document (we are the Grantors):
'Prior to the closing of this transaction, the Grantor shall remove and properly dispose of all hazardous or toxic wastes or chemicals located on, in or under the above described property.'

In other words, if Peanut makes a pig of himself, he pays about $4,000 to use the land, and it takes $4,000 for us to clean up after his pleasure ... its a wash, and he's not worth it.

Tomorrow I copy the forms and send them off. Now its the house and barn. Sister is furious at the executors for not checking the level of propane the house was getting and with the extremely frosty temperatures this last week, she figured that this cold snap blew both the water heater and the toilet, with possible burst pipes and water damage. Time to ask lawyer friend about executors' responsibilities.

Savings log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $2 coffee, milk + $4.50 curry

Got an email from sister today. We should plan a bit about what to do with the second property.

Just to review 'cuz its been awhile, dad's farm was comprised of two pieces of property (both about 80 acres) that didn't touch each other, and were about two miles apart (this ain't Texas!). The first piece of property was sold about a year ago. The second piece of property has the house, barn, buildings, etc, and about 1/3 of it is a wetland - too low to be farmable. Right now the Wisconsin DNR is interested in buying most of the property, leaving us with 7 acres and the buildings.

However no offer has been made, and we don't really know when they would come on as a buyer. And about 45-50 acres is farmable. It means that January is a very good time to come up with plans for the year...at least its a better time than April, which is when the US Bank executors were thinking about it. City boys, eh?

Sister wrote to me the possiblity of renting it out - one farmer is interested in it, which means that he would till it and grow crops on it and pay us one time for the use of it during the year. Sister isn't thrilled about him either ... he's not Nut, he's more like Peanut. This issue with Peanut is that he's a pig - uses tons of fertilizer, herbicides, had plenty of equipment that leaks fuel oil, etc. Sister's thought is to contact the farmer who was tilling dad's second property. I don't know whether he would be interested in it, especially if it would be for just one year.

The timing is the issue for me. If I knew for a fact that WiDNR would buy the property this coming fall, then it wouldn't really matter; we could leave it fallow and be done with it. If its going to be a couple of years, well someone should use it.

Tough being a member of the landed gentry.